Tours Canceled, Refunds Sought as Strife Spreads
Travel by Americans to China, which has grown steadily since Washington and Beijing normalized relations in 1979, appeared Tuesday to have ground to a virtual halt.
Airlines are flying to the strife-torn nation with fewer passengers than crew members and are coming out with heavy loads.
Major tour operators are canceling trips, some at the risk of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance payments for hotels, transportation, meals, sightseeing and entertainment, often sending travelers to alternative destinations.
United Airlines, which operates three flights a week to Beijing via Tokyo, said its flight 829 on Monday carried only five passengers. The Boeing 747, which has a capacity of 400, had 307 on board leaving the Chinese capital. Tuesday’s flight to Beijing was fully booked but also carried only five passengers. Northwest Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airlines also reported many cancellations inbound and near-capacity loads on flights leaving the embattled country.
The carriers clearly are worried about the possibility of their aircraft being damaged while they are on the ground in China. Both United and Northwest normally have their airliners stay overnight in China but are now turning them around and getting them off again within an hour or two.
“For all intents and purposes, 1989 is finished for China travel,” said Fredric M. Kaplan, operator of China Passage of Teaneck, N.J., a major tour operator. “I would qualify that by saying that there is some chance fall tours may materialize in September and October if conditions return to relative normalcy by July.”
Mary Fitzmorris of Springfield, Va., had dreamed of going to China ever since she heard, as a child, the tales of a family friend who was a missionary there. When she learned on Monday that her long-awaited 23-day trip, which was to have started today, was being canceled, she was stunned.
“I thought we would skip Beijing and go to the other places,” she said Tuesday. “I was really disappointed.”
But Fitzmorris and her friend, Beverly Allen, quickly abandoned their vow--made Monday in the midst of their disappointment--never to go anywhere ever again. At the last minute, their travel agent put together a trip for them to Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Firm Cancels June Trips
Many tour operators had groups of tourists in China when the serious troubles began in Beijing over the weekend. American Express Co. said it had groups in the country but that two have been evacuated and the rest will be out soon.
Kaplan, who arranges “adventure” tours of China (wilderness hiking, trekking, biking), said he received a telex Tuesday morning from the China Youth Travel Service, one of three government tourist agencies, saying the trips of three groups of American tourists, who had planned to leave for China this week, had to be canceled.
The message said, “Sorry we could not get to the office this morning. Under those circumstances, cancel all June groups.”
Kaplan and other tour operators said it is not clear whether China is going to refund advance payments for land tours, most of which had to be paid three months ahead of time. He said that because China’s borders have not been closed, the Chinese travel packagers might not refund the money.
He said customers need not fear, however. “I have a little clout with the Chinese,” he said. “I don’t think they dare not refund the money.” Kaplan, who said he had made about $100,000 in advance payments to the Chinese, would “go out on the limb” to offer his customers alternative trips without further charge.
Dawn Suart, general manager for operations at Olson Travel World in El Segundo, said, “We had two groups going to China in the next two weeks, and those tours have been canceled. We were prepared to divert the tours to other destinations, but people were not interested in going at all without China.”
About 30 people were affected, and all will get full refunds, Suart added.
Pearl Cruises of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was forced to reroute a 450-passenger ship that was scheduled to depart June 10 from Kobe, Japan. The China voyage was replaced by an itinerary that includes stops in Taiwan and Okinawa, according to marketing Vice President Debbie Natansohn.
“Obviously we’ve had some cancellations, but most of the passengers are going,” she said.
Delays in Refunds
A spokeswoman for Travis Pacific, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary of a Hong Kong travel agency, said the company has canceled four tours, involving about 150 people. Some difficulties have arisen with cancellation fees from airlines, she said, especially with charter operators in East Asia. A few clients, therefore, may not get full refunds.
And even though customers may eventually get refunds, those dealing with smaller agencies may face delays, travel experts warned. Refunds must pass from hotels and other businesses that have been paid in advance to tour operators, which act as wholesalers, to travel agents to customers.
“It may be a while before it comes back,” said an official of the American Society of Travel Agents in Alexandria, Va.
Airlines will not penalize their customers when trips are canceled. “We are being very flexible if people want to defer travel dates,” a spokeswoman for United said. “If that is not possible, we will refund the money.”
American Express Co., which operates tours to China, said it too would refund advance payments. “That’s a given,” said Gary Tobin, vice president of public affairs. “Anybody who wants to cancel a tour, we’ll do a full refund.”
Patrick Yau, owner of Interpacific Tours, based in New York, said prospective travelers either switched to later departures or other itineraries. “People who were in China before the weekend,” he said, “have been evacuated. Traffic to China has been totally halted.”
Yau said one 112-member high school group from York, Pa., scheduled to leave on a tour of China June 25, had chosen to go to such cities as Tokyo and Bangkok instead.
Eiji Kanno, executive director of Pacific Select, a wholesale tour business in New York, said he had to cancel all tour operations in China for June, involving about 100 travelers. He has a similar number of travelers booked for July and August and expects to have to cancel those as well.
Kanno said his organization had to advance money to the China International Travel Service, or CITS, and to hotel firms, to secure reservations. In all, these arrangements came to about $1,500 a person.
He has not yet heard from either the hotels or CITS as to how much of that money will be refunded.
Information on hotel reservations was sketchy. Ralph Berry of Holiday Inn, which operates seven hotels in China, said he had received word that occupancy in his firm’s Beijing hotel had not been affected by the crisis.
Eventhea Vlahakis of Sheraton, which operates four hotels in China, including one in Beijing, said she had little information because “our fax communications can’t get through.” But she said Sheraton’s regional office in Hong Kong is advising travelers “to cancel or postpone their trips.”
But despite the apparent dangers and the official and unofficial warnings, some Americans are actually trying to get to China.
The Travis Pacific spokeswoman said, “People want to go there and see what’s happening. A lot of people have said, ‘If you’ll still send us, we’ll still go.’ But we can’t jeopardize anyone’s safety.”
Carol Rosen, director of public relations at Travcoa, a Newport Beach-based tour operator, was shocked at how many calls the company was getting from people who wanted to go to China.
“We deal with a luxury market, and you wouldn’t think our clients would be so intrepid,” Rosen exclaimed. “We use luxury hotels, everything is fully escorted and fully catered, and here they want to go to a revolution.
“I don’t know what they’re thinking. War’s been reduced to a television show.”
Times staff writer Jonathan Weber in Los Angeles and researcher Charles Hirshberg in New York contributed to this story.
